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Updated: Jun 21, 2026

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids
Published on: December 4, 2017
Unpredictable tunneling of a classical wave-particle association
1Matières et Systèmes Complexes, Université Paris Diderot, CNRS-UMR 7057, Bâtiment Condorcet, 75013 Paris, France.
Abstract:
A droplet bouncing on a vibrated bath becomes a "walker" moving at constant velocity on the interface when it couples to the surface wave it generates. Here the motion of a walker is investigated when it collides with barriers of various thicknesses. Surprisingly, it undergoes a form of tunneling: the reflection or transmission of a given incident walker is unpredictable. However, the crossing probability decreases exponentially with increasing barrier width. This shows that this wave-particle association has a nonlocality sufficient to generate a quantumlike tunneling at a macroscopic scale.
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